Organofosfatlı alev geciktirici bileşiklerin İzmir bölgesindeki kimyasal dinamikleri

As a result of restrictions on production and use of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) due to their persistence, toxicity and bioaccumulation; organophosphate esters (OPEs) became a more widely used group of alternative additives within a number of applications (i.e. flame retardants and plasticizers) during the production of many consumer goods in global scale. OPEs are reported as stable toward biodegradation and highly resistant, while some OPEs reported as toxic, neurotoxic, and carcinogenic. Although OPEs are being widely investigated in the literature, the number of studies in Turkey is inadequate. In order to investigate their transport, environmental behavior and fate, several physicochemical properties (octanol-air partition coefficient - KOA, Henry's Law constant - H, supercooled liquid vapor pressure - PL, LDPE-water partition coefficient - KPE-W and PUF-air partition coefficient - KPUF-Air) for the eleven studied OPEs were experimentally determined. Their distribution between gas and particle-phases in the atmosphere was also investigated. Ambient air, soil and seawater concentrations were measured for summer and winter in thirty eight sampling sites covering industrial, urban, suburban and rural areas in Izmir. Highest OPE levels were observed in industrial sites followed by urban, suburban and rural sites. Ambient air and soil OPE levels were comparable to those reported in the literature while seawater concentrations were slightly higher. Air-soil and air-seawater exchange of OPES were also evaluated using measured OPE levels and experimentally determined physicochemical properties. The exchange directions did not change with season and they were mostly affected by OPE levels detected in the matrices of interest.